Nova Launcher’s new owner might offer a version with ads

Last year, Nova Launcher founder and sole developer Kevin Barry announced he had left Branch Metrics, Nova’s parent company at the time — which followed an announcement from 2024 that nearly everyone working on the project had been laid off. But the launcher is getting new life: in a blog post on Tuesday, the Swedish company Instabridge, which makes an app that helps people connect to Wi-FI hotspots, announced it has acquired Nova Launcher.

“Nova is not shutting down,” according to Instabridge. “Our immediate focus is simple: keep Nova stable, compatible with modern Android, and actively maintained.” However, Instabridge says it’s “evaluating ad based options” for the free version of the launcher.” But the newest update for Nova Launcher has trackers for Facebook Ads and Google AdMob in its code and users on Reddit have already reported seeing ads, as reported by Android Authority.

If ads are added to the launcher, the paid experience, Nova Launcher Prime, will “remain ad free.”

Instabridge is also “actively evaluating” open sourcing Nova. When announcing his departure in September, Barry said that he had been “asked to stop working on Nova Launcher and the open sourcing effort” even though a former Branch CEO said publicly that “If Kevin were to ever leave, it’s contracted that the code will be open sourced and put in the hands of the community.”

“Open sourcing a product responsibly involves licensing, security, build tooling, contribution workflow, and trademark stewardship,” Instabridge says. “We do not have a decision to share yet, but we will be transparent once we do.

Barry, Instabridge, and Branch didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.